I appreciate the current enthusiasm in crypto markets and the resilience it has shown with the crash a few weeks back.

However this is my warning that there is a high chance of a black swan that will upend things.

Specifically in terms of regulation & exchanges. The SEC has sent a warning shot but it seems to have been brushed off by everyone in short order. But what's happening now with Bitfinex goes beyond the surface. I suspect a major US exchange is likely to have major problems shortly.

And the biggest risk of all is not actually the SEC -- but the PBoC. The Chinese government has yet to take enforcement action on ICOs and it remains fairly easy for Chinese to purchase crypto. However new ICOs are being launched in China at a crazier pace currently than even in the west at the moment (most of which you haven't heard about). The PBoC are well-aware aware and will do something soon - I suspect again it may involve the more "retail" exchanges which will put an enormous damper on sentiment.

They have even more incentive given they've cracked down on just about all other major sources of capital outflows. And the ramification will be enormous - let me tell you, when the Chinese (or Koreans) panic & dump a speculative asset, there's quite nothing like it.

A regulation panic crash will be a huge buying opportunity unless you concede that these assets will not stand up to regulatory scrutiny. That being the case, they're exactly the type of asset that should be regulated. These scamcoin icos have complete joke valuations untethered from reality when compared to what the projects would raise on registered securities markets or through private venture funding.

ICOs have disrupted the cost of capital for startups. VCs previously had a monopoly on funding startups and insisted on onerous terms (i.e., a high cost of capital) because they were investing large sums of money on behalf of demanding clients. With ICOs, the average investment is much smaller and the investors are less demanding. The huge overhead imposed by VCs have been abolished. So yes, startups are getting more money than they would from VCs (suggesting "higher valuations"), but that is because the VC leaches are no longer holding value back by lining their pockets. In other words, the total value is the same, it's just that without VCs taking their ridiculous cuts, it seems shockingly bigger.

They didn't disrupt anything. They just let nonaccredited Reddit investors invest AND trade the securities of highly speculative start-ups from the comfort of their basement. You now have 100's of illegitimate operations raising tens of millions of dollars with no diligence and no product. More than 90 percent of these are going to flame out and leave the holders with nothing. It's totally illegal, and illegality is not disruption.